Thursday, June 4, 2009

mystery photo: colesville road in the 1990's

I was doing some online research last night on the Transportation Planning Board - who's putting the finishing touches on a regional Bus Rapid Transit plan to submit for federal stimulus funding - when I found this photo in one of their presentations. It's of reversible lanes on Colesville Road in Downtown Silver Spring . . . a long, long time ago.

At the very least I know this photo is of Colesville west of Georgia, presumably near the Metro, and from the looks of the cars on the street, taken in the early 1990's. (The reversible lanes, at least on this segment of Colesville, have long since disappeared; there's a median there now.) What I don't know is:

1) exactly where it is and what direction it's facing2) where is it in relation to the Metro, which had been built much earlier?3) what are the buildings on the left?

This is an aerial photo from 1988 (taken two days after I was born) showing the area where the photo above was taken. It hasn't given me too much insight on what's going on, but maybe it'll help you, The Readers. Any thoughts? Leave a comment or shoot me an email at justupthepike at gmail dot com.

9 comments:

The where is rather simple really, the curve of the road and the left turn signage is a dead give away for facing east, with the intersection with Georgia Ave. The photo was probably taken some where before Fenton St. The low-rise buildings in question are the old 'Call Carl' gas station in the middle, the county services building located in the red brick building at the time, and what remained of the Covington Buick car dealership on Georgia Ave.

These buildings are all gone now and have been replaced by the Discovery headquarters building.

The building on the left would be one of Lloyd Moore's buildings on Wayne Ave. The other dominant building is the NOAA building on the other side of the Metro tracks.

Hope that answers your questions. Even from Seattle WA. I can still see the old Silver Sprung as I remember it.

I agree with Chuck about the placement of the photo. Note that the median you wrote of is actually present in this photo as well: a sign warning of its presence on the "west" side of Georgia is visible in the lower right corner of the photo.

I'll take Chuck's word for it on the service station and other details for the buildings on the current site of the Discovery building. For further reference, from this perspective, the Metro tracks would run between the two taller buildings in the background.

I think the reversible lanes shown are still there in the block in the foreground. The photo was taken from mid-block on the north side of Colesville Road between Georgia Avenue and Fenton Street (more or less opposite the AFI theater), looking south-west toward the Georgia/Colesville intersection. Chuck has it right, except that the photographer was facing south-west, not east.

That's definitely taken from Colesville Road near the AFI looking down towards the Metro. It looks like it might be from after the "Call Carl" days. I think towards the end it became a sort of run down looking car detailing place. That's the original Covington Buick next to it, and to the left of that (out of the picture) is the original Tastee Diner which got moved to Cameron Street in 1999 when they built the Discovery Building.